Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Montessori for Infants: Object Permanence Box DIY



In our Montessori teaching album for infants and toddlers, we discuss the use and presentation of a lot of material that is designed to promote the brain-body development link.

This object permanence box for infants is a wonderful piece of equipment that can also be made at home. For example, you can take a small box (about half the size of a shoe box) and cut a round hole exactly the size of the ball on the top of the box. Using the ball shown, your child can experiment by putting the ball through the top round hole and then lifting the lid to find that the ball is inside the box.

Promoting this sorts of physical and intellectual interaction addresses your child's development needs in these early years.

For those of you who have purchased this teaching album, it is important to get or make as much of this series of material as possible -- it is all in the same chapter in the album.

3 comments:

Sara said...

Should only one piece of equipment be on my child's shelf at a time? If he is learning to use the first permanence box, is that the only thing I should have on his shelf?

It seems that that won't be enough to keep him interested all day until he understands how to use it with precision.

Montessori House said...

Thanks for your note! We usually keep three pieces of this type of equipment on the shelf at one time. That is in addition to a few books and other material on another part of the shelf or in a different area of the room.

Montessori House said...

Also, we usually do a trial and error set up, if it is not in the classroom. At home, you can see what works. Your child might love having one or two pieces on a shelf at a time and be totally absorbed in working with them, or more choice might seem more fun, depending on the exact stage of development. Curious to hear how it goes!